Dateline ACT

South & south east Asia/Thailand - 03/05

By Eva Berglund, Church of Sweden/ACT International

Tung Wa, Thailand, April 14, 2005—For most residents of fishing communities, life is dependent on the sea for making a living and on the land for making a dwelling. But for the Moken people of Thailand, many of whom are fishermen who live on the coast, but have no title to their land and no identity documents, last year’s tsunami made both the sea and their land inaccessible.

When the tsunami hit, Acom Samarn, 37, a leader in the village of Tung Wa in southern Thailand, managed to escape with his family and hold on to a tree until the water receded. For three days they stayed on a hill, too frightened to return to their village. He didn’t know what the future held and felt hopeless. But at least everybody in his family - his wife, two children and his parents - survived the tsunami.

After three days on the hill, Samarn and his family decided to look for food and water. They went to a temporary shelter, set up by the government at Khuk Kak village, two kilometers from their own village. They stayed in the camp for three weeks.

“We wanted to return to our own land. How could we otherwise survive? But the authorities told us not to,” says Samarn. “They wanted to build new houses for us 50 kilometers away and use our land to build a hospital.”

The Moken people started to organize themselves. They were encouraged and supported by non-governmental organizations and people from churches. One of them was Samarn Chaisathan, a teacher at a college run by the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), which is carrying out the response to the tsunami for the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.

When Chaisathan heard about the earthquake, he rushed with some friends to the Phang-Nga province, which was the worst hit area in the country. They found the Moken people on the hill and brought them food and water. For Chaisathan, it was a matter of course to assist people who wanted to fight to keep their land.

“We contacted the authorities in Bangkok, and finally [a person in authority] came here and promised the people that they could keep the land. Then they started to rebuild their village,” says Chaisathan.

The tsunami had destroyed much of their village. “In the first wave, 15 houses collapsed; the rest was taken by the second. There is nothing left of my house,” says Samarn. He points to a spot a few meters away where there is only a simple sign on a wooden stick. Everything else is gone. In addition, the loss of life was sizeable. From the 71 families in the village, 42 people were lost in the tsunami, mostly children and old people who couldn’t run away. Only five of them have been found.

So far the government has assisted the people with 18 houses. Many are busy with construction, and recently many volunteers have joined the work. Some houses are almost complete, and people have started to move in. The goal is to have new houses for all 71 families. That is the first priority. CCT plans to support the construction of a number of houses in Tung Wa. The next step will be to acquire boats and fishing equipment so residents can return to their livelihood and not depend on relief any longer.

“I want to fish again,” says Samarn, “when we have finished the houses. I understand what has happened, and I am not afraid to return to the sea.”